Orlando Magic’s simple goal for NBA Draft: Get two great players

The NBA Draft and the discussion around it can sometimes get over-complicated.

What the design of the whole draft process is meant to do is to help teams bring in new talent. They are all trying to get the best players they can. They want to make their teams better. An injection of young talent is meant to improve the team’s long-term prospects as they grow and improve and help slide in with the team.

It is all the other considerations that complicate things — ranking players in tiers or on a big board, trading up and down, considering how players fit into the existing roster and everything else.

Picking and ranking players necessarily creates debate. And even in NBA draft rooms, that debate rages on as it would in any barbershop or dark corner of the Internet — although perhaps a bit more intelligently.

The Orlando Magic are deep into their draft preparations. But the goal is clear. Despite all the complications of the draft, they want to get the best players they can with their current picks.

The goal though despite all the pieces that get added to the equation remains the same. The team is trying to get the best players it can.

And for the Orlando Magic with selections at Nos. 5 and 8 in this year’s NBA Draft, the real goal is simple: Get the best players they can.

"“We feel really good about the players that we’re looking at,” president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said during a press conference Monday. “We’re going to come away with two good players on Thursday night. We’re very confident about that.”"

It still feels like a lot has happened since the Magic fell to fifth in the NBA Draft Lottery. As Weltman said on that night, the Lottery is just pure luck and completely out of the team’s controls, despite how they might try to stack the odds.

Building with talent

As a rebuilding team, Jeff Weltman said the team is looking for talent and character. Specific positional needs or finding specific skills takes a little more of a back seat considering where the team is at developmentally. They are important, but the team is focused on other interests right now.

Being in a rebuild, the Orlando Magic are still more interested in collecting talent and trying to rebuild the base of their franchise. Both of these picks figure deeply into that process.

But it all comes back to that central tenet for a rebuilding team — find good players to add to the roster.

"“Most important for us is we feel we are going to add two talented guys who can grow into being high-level players and high-level teammates,” Weltman said Monday. “I think we’re looking at a bunch of guys at 5 and 8 that fit that bill. We are not where we were a few years ago where we slot in a specific need, we need to draft guys we can grow with.”"

That may not be what fans want to hear, concerned about the team’s aimless rebuild under former general manager Rob Hennigan. That seemed to focus solely on collecting talent without consideration of building a functioning team together.

It is hard too not to acknowledge the running joke in NBA circles about the Magic’s obsession with positional length over actual basketball skill. Weltman said positional size and versatility is a factor for the team, but they ultimately want to pick the best player.

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While the team feels loaded at some positions, Weltman also said they do not want to pass on a player they like just because they do not check every box. This is why sorting players into tiers and groups is a vital part of the process.

Building information

What the Orlando Magic can control is building up their information banks and preparation for the draft. And while that has been tougher this season, the team feels like it is in a good spot.

In the month since the Lottery, the team has gotten to work to review prospects throughout the draft. There is a clear list of players the team might take with the fifth pick — G-League Ignite forward Jonathan Kuminga and Florida State forward Scottie Barnes are the favorites — and a host of players available for the eighth pick — including UConn’s James Bouknight, Arkansas’ Moses Moody, Besiktas’ Alperen Sengun, Adelaide 36ers’ Josh Giddey and Tennessee’s Keon Johnson, to name a few.

Almost all of those players have cycled through the Amway Center according to reports along with plenty more the team might have on its board for one of their top-10 picks.

Those visits might have taken on more importance this season with the general lack of access teams have had to their traditional scouting tools. Scouts were not typically on the road this year because of COVID restrictions and so many did not see players live until the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis.

There was not the usual information and intelligence gathering that comes from dropping in at a school and talking to a coach or fellow scouts.

Everyone is trying to play catch up with that process and slot players in.

Multiplying the challenge

The Orlando Magic’s challenge has been multiplied by their two picks and their young roster. The team has always put a premium on character and that has not changed under Weltman. So getting players in and understanding who they are has been important.

With two critical picks so high in the draft, the Magic are in a position to control a lot of the draft in go in a number of different directions.

"“It’s really been interesting, not just having two picks but having two picks that are bunched together like that, there have been a lot of conversations about swinging for the fences or if we do this with this one, we can do this with the other,” Jeff Weltman said Monday. “Ultimately, we need to come away with two good players with high character that we can grow and develop and be part of our team. We’re confident we can do that.”"

Weltman said part of their draft preparations has been going through a lot of these scenarios to see what might be available to them. But that is all part of the complicated stuff.

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Weltman said the pick still comes down to believing in the player they pick. The repeated goal through everything is to come away from this draft with two quality players.

Trades are part of the discussions. And Weltman said those will continue to flesh out as discussions become more serious the closer teams get to draft night. He said the team has had discussions both to trade up — much more difficult the higher up the draft you go, he said — and trade down. But that kind of statement is normal for this time of year.

The Magic are considering a lot of things. They understand fit matters to some degree. But they are not in a position to slot a player into a spot. They need talent before anything else.

And so they are focused on finding the best players they can. Who that is will be a matter of debate and review all the way up until the team is on the clock on Thursday.

"“There’s never an obvious answer in anything you debate,” Weltman said Monday. “That’s the challenge of the draft. That’s what we kick around. That’s why these boards always changed. That’s why I say if the draft were 24 hours earlier or later, it would be different. You look at things differently the more you consider them or bring more facts to bear.”"

At the end of the day, all these considerations center on one thing: Finding the best players. That is what is most important for the Magic and the ultimate consideration that matters most.